


Game Night In Mistral: Yang Xiao Long presents: Grift & Grit

by Kiiratam



Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [19]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Western, Beehaw, Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, background renora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25560913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Yang is definitely prepared to run a game. She's absolutely got more than a basic premise and strongly held intentions to stat everything out.Or not...Takes place the evening before the start of Volume 6 (My BMBLB fic index).
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1482323
Comments: 20
Kudos: 50





	Game Night In Mistral: Yang Xiao Long presents: Grift & Grit

"I'm not sure the game works with this many people." Weiss passed three cards over to Blake.

  
Adding one card from her hand, Blake laid down four 8s on the coffee table in front of her. "And there aren't as many fish as I expected."

  
Jaune sighed, cross-legged on the floor. "But it was such a good idea! More people, add more decks."

  
"I think the plan needs a few more passes." Yang was having trouble keeping all of her hand _in_ her hand. Especially since her Atlesian arm was being a pain. She was tempted to go get her toolkit, and fiddle with the precision, but she was pretty sure it was packed away already.

  
"It probably would have been easier to just split into two groups." Oscar added from his place next to Jaune.

  
"Yeah, but if we did that, I wouldn't have sixteen of a kind!" Sun gestured at his stack of Jacks. There was a joke there, but Yang wasn't going to go for it with Ruby here.

  
Nora slugged him in the shoulder. "Hey, you stole half those from me!"

  
Rubbing his shoulder, Sun leaned forward to look at Ren, on Nora's other side. "Hey, you need any help with dinner?"

  
"Of course." Ren stood up, passing his hand to Nora. "I should get started."

  
"Oh, yeah, sure." Sun bounced up too. "Anyone want my hand?"

  
"Sure, I could use a spare." Yang held out her Atlesian hand out, grinning.

  
That got a nice groan from everyone around the table.

  
After waiting for it to die down, Ren asked, "Jaune, were you still going to make lemonade?"

  
"Right! Yeah, ummm." Jaune rose his feet. "Anyone _other_ than Yang want my hand?"

  
"I think we should try another game, since we're losing three players." Weiss was only saying that because she was losing. Badly. 

  
Before anyone could address that, Sun said, "Hey, Oscar, come help cook. Guy's night in the kitchen!"

  
Yang had no idea if any of them other than Ren could actually cook. Ren's expression had developed into extreme skepticism, but he didn't say anything. 

  
"Um, okay?" Oscar got up, and the guys made their way off kitchenward.

  
Putting her cards down on the table, Ruby asked, "So what are we playing next? _Astral Derelict_? Poker? That weird game you know, Weiss?"

  
Weiss sighed. "Whist. And no, we have the wrong number of people."

  
"I suck at poker." Nora said, putting her (and Ren's) hands down.

  
"She's not just saying that." Yang pointed out. "She is actually _really_ bad at it."

  
"Wow, okay. Rude. New game - I fight Yang." Nora started to get to her feet.

  
"Hey, I canceled evening practice for this!" Ruby was trying to hit both of them with indignant glares, but given that Yang was sitting next to her, and Nora was on the other side of the table, she wasn't having much luck. "That's a workout, not a game at all! Game time," She chopped her hand, "Practice time. No mixing!"

  
Nora settled. Apparently satisfied at that (and missing Yang sticking her tongue out), Ruby asked, " _Astral Derelict_? Shooting aliens?"

  
Sighing, Weiss said. "I still don't have it."

  
"I don't play videogames." Yang had honestly forgotten that Ilia was sitting there. She made Blake look loud. ...Beacon Blake, not the much chattier Blake that Yang still wasn't used to.

  
"Oh." Ruby glanced down at her cards, reshuffling them in her hand. "Um, I'm sure we can come up with _something_. Blake, do you know any card games?"

  
"Just poker. And not well."

  
"Yang, weren't you going to run a game?" Weiss set her card down in a precise stack. "Something like _Fortresses & Froghemoths_? Or that coffeeshop game?"

  
Nora grinned. "That one was fun! And tasty." Trust Nora to remember the snacks.

  
"It _was_ a lot of fun." Blake wasn't looking at her when she said it, and Yang didn't know if that made the compliment better or worse.

  
Everyone else was looking at her, though. Hoping she'd have a game ready for game night. "Um, sure, I can do something." _I had a premise, at least._ "No print-outs, like last time." _Because I am absolutely not ready._ "Just, um, give me a few minutes to look at the rules?" _And frantically plan._

  
"Should we start thinking of characters?" Blake hadn't really directed the question _at_ Yang, but it wasn't like anyone else could answer.

  
"Yeah, uh-" Yang _had_ been going to pre-make characters for everyone to play, because she hadn't wanted to waste gaming time making characters. There were enough rules to learn without also figuring out how to make an effective character. But she didn't have everything written up like she wanted to, so she definitely wasn't going to be able to run it in _X-Hairs_ , or even _Bullpup X-Hairs_. And everyone was waiting for her answer. "-Just think of characters that would fit in a Vacuo gunslinger movie."

  
She pulled out her scroll, and flipped to her tabletop gaming folder. If Yang was going to have to improvise most of this, she wasn't going to be able to use anything rules-heavy. Which, in this case, was anything that required the players to know the rules. Definitely not _X-Hairs_ , or _Marshall Martel_ \- though Nora would thank her for giving that one a pass, since it was poker-based. And the old-school _F &F_ might work, but Yang hadn't read the _Frontiers & Feylarches_ supplement _that_ closely, and now wasn't the time for speed-reading it.

  
Yang paused, her thumb on _Coffeehouse: a multisystem RPG supplement_. The super lightweight system in that, the one she'd used for the coffeeshop game... change the names, use the same mechanic - it would work pretty well for a pick-up game. Especially when she barely had anything prepared.

  
Time to buy time. Yang asked, "Blake? Can you grab some blank paper and pens?" If anyone knew where to find those, Blake would. "Ruby? Dice? All the d6s you can rustle up."

  
Blake sped off without a word, but Ruby turned to Weiss. "Want me to get yours too?"

  
And Yang had _no_ idea why Weiss suddenly looked... guilty? "No, that's fine, I'll get them."

  
Even Ruby picked up on _something_ , because she let out a drawn out, "Suuuure. It's okay, Weiss, you can just say you're packed already."

  
"You're _not_? Ruby, we leave tomorrow morning." The two of them started for the bedrooms, 'discussing' the whole way.

  
A notebook and a pen appeared in front of Yang, and she looked up in time to see Blake give her a smile before dashing off again. Yang almost called after her, to tell her that she'd meant for Blake to get some loose paper, not one of Blake's notebooks - definitely not one of Blake's _nice_ notebooks - but -

  
_Not important. Later._

  
"Nora, can you grab some snacks, pops, whatever?"

  
"Yup! " Nora bounced up. "Can't game without food!"

  
Yang called after her, as she headed towards the kitchen. "Not enough to ruin dinner!"

  
"Ha! As if!"

  
Very if. It was _Nora_ , and her sense of proportion was pretty skewed when it came to food. And exercise. And some other things.

  
Which just left Yang. And Ilia, who Yang had almost forgotten about again.

  
She was just so quiet. Like Blake had been. ...And the comparison was probably more apt that Yang really understood, considering they were both ex-White Fang. Yang didn't know how Ilia fitted into the mess between Blake and Adam.

  
Yang did Blake's breathing trick - in, hold, out - and asked, trying to echo her old self - "So, have you ever played a roleplaying game before?"

  
It took Ilia a second to realized Yang was actually talking to her. "Oh. No."

  
"They're pretty fun. This one's basically going to be one of those Vacuo gunslinger movies." Yang paused, trying to remember what Blake had said about those. "But, with a lot more Faunus than the movies. Like actual history."

  
"Okay." Ilia was focused on a point about a foot behind Yang's eyes, with enough intensity that Yang figured she was trying to force out a laser-eyes Semblance.

  
This was not a fight Yang wanted to have. Ilia hadn't really relaxed all night, had only really responded when Blake talked to her. Sun had tried to joke with her, and she'd given him some looks that were positively Weissian. And she'd focused in on the game of Go Fish like it had personally insulted her, or something.

  
The really weird part was that _Weiss_ was the only person other than Blake that she'd been friendly towards. Which was absolutely not what Yang had expected from a member of the White Fang. But the two of them had talked most of the night when the Belladonnas came over; Yang must have just missed something. 

  
..Though come to think of it, they did have pretty similar mannerisms. Was Ilia just mirroring back Weiss? Or was she-

  
Yang threw her speculations away. It didn't matter. They were leaving Mistral in the morning, and Ilia didn't want to talk. Yang didn't have to go borrowing trouble. She jotted down a few notes down, trying to get the ideas of the game settled. Hopefully, Ilia would unwind a bit when she saw everyone else having fun.

* * *

  
Taking a last glance over her page and a half of scribbled notes, Yang blew out a breath, and looked up at her players.

  
"So what are we doing, sis?" Ruby had an unreasonable amount of dice in front of her, and Yang had _no idea_ where she'd gotten them all. Weiss had her own, and Ruby's metal dice were there too, but there were also piles of cheap plastic ones. Not waiting for Yang's answer, Ruby started divvying out the dice to everyone else, working around the veggie tray Ren had made up.

  
"Um, not _F &F_. Or _X-Hairs_. "

  
"Awww-"

  
Yang kept talking over her sister's whine, before she could start extolling the virtues of her super complex shoot-and-scoot RPG. "Weiss, Blake, it's basically the same system as the coffeeshop game."

  
Both of them nodded, after a moment spent bringing that to mind. It couldn't have already been a year ago? At the same time, it felt more like a decade.

  
Nora snorted. "Oh, right, the Hot Plumber Love-in Hour."

  
Weiss blushed, looking down at her knees, and Ruby screwed up her face. "The _what_ the hey now?"

  
From her face, Weiss wasn't going to be able to explain _anything_ , and Nora just looked entirely too pleased with herself.

  
"It was a-" "We all fell-" Yang started talking at the same time as Blake. She gestured for Blake to continue, and shut up.

  
"We all fell _deeply_ in love with Nora's NPC, because it was a meet-cute coffeeshop AU, and that was the whole point." Blake wasn't blushing at all, just matter of fact explaining to Ruby. "She had great arms, and two big sled dogs."

  
Ruby brightened. "Aww, puppies!"

  
Before that led off into a 'look at pictures of Zwei' tangent (Blake hated those), Yang said, "So does everyone have a character idea? Weiss?"

  
Celery in hand, Weiss froze. "Um, a young ranch hand? Or a homesteader?"

  
"Young and naive? Young, but scarred beyond her years? What were you thinking?"

  
Yang noticed Weiss' eyes dip to her new arm. "Young, and idealistic. She came out to the frontier to get away from the demands of urban life. Out here, she's only subject to the laws of nature."

  
Nora waved a carrot stick. "Yeah, you don't sound super _employable_ to me."

  
"A homesteader, then. With her own little cabin and a farm that's more like a big garden."

  
"Aww, that sounds cozy, Weiss!" Ruby clapped her hands together. "Just like home!"

  
Which, Yang gathered, was the point. Even if Weiss wasn't going to out and out _tell_ Ruby that. "So, Weiss, this homesteader of yours-"

  
"Hildagard." She started delicately eating.

  
"Wow, okay. Is _Hildagard_ better at Grift or Grit? Grift is all that civilized stuff - being polite, lying, advanced technology, all those things you're good at - and Grit is frontier moxie. Being tough, shooting straight, doing gross things, you know-" Yang grinned. "Yang stuff." She took an inordinate amount of joy from Weiss' facial contortions, as Weiss tried to figure out how to phrase a polite response. "2 is max Grift, 5 is max Grit."

  
"Um, 4? Hildagard has adapted pretty well to the frontier, even though she's only been here a couple of years. She does still have a collection of books on farming and such, though, as she puts theory to the test."

  
Yang nodded. "Interesting riff, Weiss! Good job making the archetype your own." She shifted her gaze to her sister, who was practically bouncing in place. "Sis?"

  
"I wanna be a gunslinger!"

  
_Saw **that** coming._

  
"They call me -" Ruby paused for dramatic effect, though it would have worked better without everyone crunching away. "-The Man With No Aura! ...Oh wait, I wanted to be a lady. Um, The Lady With No Aura! Except I'm not really a lady I guess. The Gal With No Aura?"

  
Blake leaned over to give Ruby a skeptical look. "You're a professional gunfighter with no Aura?"

  
"Well, no, I have one, it's just that my Aura is clear, so it doesn't _look_ like I have one. The name's just to scare folks."

  
Sighing, Weiss rolled her eyes. "A moral paragon."

  
"Oh quiet, _Hildagard_. Your name scares people too."

  
"It's a perfectly good period name!"

  
Nora added, "For a grandmother."

  
Oh, the Schnee dander was up now. "I had a spinster great aunt named Hildagard!"

  
"Kiiiiiiinda proving their point, Weiss." Yang focused back on Ruby. "Does your gunslinger have an _actual_ name?"

  
Gamely ignoring Weiss smoldering beside her, Ruby shrugged. "No clue."

  
"Can you at least settle on a moniker?"

  
Blake chimed in, "How about the Damned Dame?"

  
"Oh, that's awesome!" Ruby grinned back at her. "I'm going with that. And she's got white eyes that look super freaky."

  
"I'm going to guess you're max Grit."

  
"Yup! Don't care a lick for what other people think."

  
Yang considered her last three players. Blake usually took a while to settle, Ilia was new - "Nora?"

  
Crunching on her celery, Nora said, "Oh, I'm the queen of the saloon. I give all those dusty ranchers and travelers a little taste of civilization, to keep them from going _completely_ feral." She waggled her eyebrows, leaving Yang with zero doubt about how she'd describe her character if Ruby _wasn't_ in the room. At least she had a _little_ tact.

  
"Name?"

  
"Roxanne, but I make all my customers call me Miss Roxy. Just to remind them to miss Roxy when they're gone."

  
Over everyone's groans, Yang asked, "And your saloon is called?"

  
"The Sunrise Saloon."

  
"Grift/Grit rating?"

  
That actually made Nora pause for a second. "3? I'm only civilized by comparison; I'm still a tough frontier lady. I'm just _also_ in the latest fashion I can get." She proved exactly how civilized she was by double-dipping her celery in the dressing.

  
Yang couldn't put it off any longer. "Ilia, Blake? Did either of you have characters?"

  
Leaning forward, Blake started to answer, but Ilia whispered something in her ear. Blake's ears cocked as she listened and considered.

  
Sighing internally, Yang bludgeoned some long buried jealousies _back_ to death. _They've been friends for a long time. I'm glad Blake managed to save someone else from Adam. Besides me._ She rolled the fingers of her Atlesian arm a few times, breathing in, holding, blowing out, trying to work through the tremor.

  
"Does a prospector work?" Ilia had settled back down, looking at Yang nervously.

  
"Perfect." Yang dropped her extra-friendly mask into place. She wanted Ilia to have a good time, and everyone else was going to be roleplaying too. Yang was just pretending to be someone who was completely at ease with one of Blake's old friends. "Are you crotchety, just hoping to get lucky, using it as an excuse to wander around by yourself?"

  
She thought for a moment, then said, "Can I be a miner who was blacklisted? I'm out here because it's the only place I can use my skills."

  
"Great! Did you have a name?"

  
Ilia turned to Blake, helplessly.

  
Blake thought, brow furrowed, and said, "Uhh, Hairy? Not for Harold, just because you've got big eyebrows or something. Your character, I mean." She added hastily, as Ilia raised a hand to her forehead.

  
"Schwartz?"

  
Yang caught Weiss nearly rolling her eyes, even if she did stop herself before any Authentic Schnee Sighs escaped. Which Yang was grateful for; she really didn't want to relive the first semester Blake vs Weiss fights, only louder. Or stabbier.

  
But Ilia was still waiting for an answer, so Yang said, "That's fine. Blake?"

  
"Um. Is the Peony Express still running?"

  
"The what now? " Nora asked, between scarfing down carrot sticks.

  
"Oh, it was a mail network in the Vacuo provinces, staffed almost entirely by winged Faunus." Blake said brightly.

  
Some of Weiss' annoyance leaked out. "Nora, we had a segment on them in Logistics class."

  
"...Didn't it only last six months? "

  
"Eighteen, actually." Weiss would know that, of course. "And that was largely due to staffing issues; they just couldn't pay enough to attract sufficient couriers to run all their routes. Or wouldn't. They weren't Faunus owned."

  
Before Weiss could go on more, Yang said, "I didn't have a definite timeline, Blake."

  
"Oh. Can I be an ex-Peony flier, then? I do local routes for the Vacuo post now. "

  
"Yeah, that's great. Grift/Grit rating? Um, Ilia, same question." Yang hoped Ilia wouldn't think she'd skipped her on purpose.

  
"Do we _have_ to have all the ratings? I don't to be a Sch-" Ilia broke off, turning bright red all over.

  
Weiss crunched away on a carrot stick, looking at the rest of the veggie tray like she was planning a campaign.

  
Yang tried to address Ilia without actually really _looking_ at her. She settled for delivering her words halfway between Ilia and Blake. "We don't need all the numbers for balance or anything. If you want to be a bunch of hard drinking, hard fighting barbarians, that's entirely up to you."

  
"I think Dinah's a 3." Blake said, probably trying to give her friend more cover. "She hasn't been out here for more than five years, and she was just a street kid before that, living by her wits."

  
Grabbing another handful of veggies, Nora said, "The streets aren't a _less_ tough place to live."

  
"Well no, but there's a lot more talking to people. You can't fast-talk scorpions."

  
Nora made accepting noises as she ate.

  
Yang turned to Ilia. "What's Schwartz's number?" When she hesitated, Yang repeated herself - again - "2 is very Grifty, 5 is very Gritty."

  
"...5?"

  
"Cool." Yang reached out and grabbed some veggies to munch on, and give herself a few seconds to think, sitting in her easy chair. "We're just going to go around the table," she swept her carrot stick at her players, "And I want you to tell me why you're at the Sunrise Saloon tonight." Yang looked to her right, where Nora was sprawled on the couch. "Miss Roxy, advertise. Tell these poor souls why they should come to your place." 

  
"Apart from being the only place in town? We've got hot food, soft beds, a dance floor, and friendly ears. And me," Nora placed her hand on her chest, settling into a Proper Weissian Posture, "The only real lady in two hundred klicks." Weiss sighed, which was what Nora was aiming for, because she cackled. "I don't even allow spitting in my establishment! C'mon in, I'm the best!"

  
Yang nodded at Blake, "Dinah?"

  
"Well, if the Sunrise Saloon is peak civilization for the area, I'm probably at the end of my route."

  
Surprisingly, Nora didn't object to this. Probably because her mouth was full.

  
"So I guess I just arrived in town, and I'm going to be passing mail out for a few days while the old flappers recover. Since I reckon this town is too small-"

  
Ruby jumped in. "For the both of us!" 

  
Weiss didn't sigh, but she did roll her eyes.

  
"Aww, come on, I _had_ to say it! What if I don't get a chance later?"

  
Yang reached out and grabbed her sister, dragging her closer and applying reassurance. And noogies. Over Ruby's cries of 'ahhh, my brain!' and such, she nodded at Blake to continue.

  
"-too small for a postmaster. But I've got the latest catalogues for Miss Roxy to sigh over, and plenty of mail for everyone else." Blake turned to Ilia. "Maybe some letters from back home for you? Friends? Or something related to your blacklisting?"

  
"Um." Ilia looked around the group, from the chair opposite Yang. "Do I have to talk like my character? An accent or something?"

  
Letting Ruby go before she could get too disruptive (or mount a reprisal), Yang shrugged. "You don't have to. You can just say what your character is doing, or more or less what they're saying. So Nora could say 'I seduce the good-looking stranger', without us having to play that out. Whatever you're comfortable doing." She put a big grin on. "It's a game; the point is to have fun." Yang hoped that saying it out loud would help her remember it herself.

  
Ilia took a deep breath, and turned to Blake. "It's probably a letter from Schwartz's parents, just filling her in on family happenings."

  
"It's good to stay in touch." Blake prompted her friend. "So did you just come into town to get your letter, are you restocking, did you find a good seam...?"

  
"Oh. Right. Um, I think Schwartz hasn't gotten lucky yet. She's been wandering all over the mountains, living off of some small finds, and marking up maps."

  
Nora held out a bottle of soda. "Sounds like thirsty work."

  
"Yeah." Ilia took the bottle.

  
"And dirty. We've got baths, you know." And Nora was definitely having fun, because her eyebrows were getting a serious workout.

  
"Uh huh."

  
"You just let Miss Roxy know if you find any hot springs? I could set up some _real_ baths, and make a real nice living."

  
"Sure."

  
Weiss took Ilia's terse responses as a cue that it was her turn. From her seat on the floor, she tried to slouch into character. Tried. "I'm at the saloon to get some company. Not like that!" Before Nora could get a word out, even. "Just some people to talk to. You know, about neighborly things."

  
"Weissssss, it's the _frontier_." Ruby bumped Weiss with her shoulder, clearly thinking she'd explained everything.

  
"And?"

  
Ruby looked up at Yang, clearly at a bit of a loss. The gap of knowledge was apparently too large for her to tackle on her own.

  
Yang tried to explain. "The way one of our stories had it, 'if you can see the smoke from their chimney, your neighbors live too close.'" Weiss had an extremely doubtful look on her face at that. "But sis, that story also had someone wrestle a tornado. It's a _little_ exaggerated."

  
"Wait, is this going to be one of those boring _realistic_ games, with no gunfights? Aaargh, you could have warned me, sis! I could have been shooting Iron Ghosts in the face!"

  
"Is that why you're in a saloon? Looking for a fight?"

  
Ruby scrunched up her face, thinking hard. "That would make me the bad gal, and I don't really want to play that. Um, just passing through? Oh, or I just finished my last job, and I heard Blake's character -"

  
"Dinah." Blake had folded a sheet of paper into a little namecard for herself, and she gestured at it, before going back to making one for everyone else.

  
"- right, thanks! I heard she was scheduled to come into town with the mail, and I was going to talk to her about bounties and stuff. And it's a small town, right? So I have to hang out at the saloon."

  
Nora snorted. "Right, skulking in a corner, scaring my staff with your weird eyes."

  
"Uh. Hrm." Ruby rested her chin on the edge of the table. "I didn't think about that."

  
"Well, Miss Roxy is going to saunter up to you and -" Nora glanced over at Yang. "This is okay, right? I'm not jumping on your story or anything?"

  
"Go ahead." It gave Yang a bit more time to try to cobble together her vague concept into an actual plan.

  
Blake handed Nora a namecard. "Hey, what do you look like? Just trying to get a good mental image."

  
"Oh, I dunno. Tall, blonde, good looking? " Nora made vague motions in front of her chest. "With a lot on tap, if you know what I mean."

  
Blake just nodded, as Weiss and Ilia rolled their eyes. And Ruby, thankfully, just looked slightly mystified.

  
"So what brings you to these parts, stranger?" Nora stood up to plant a hand on the coffee table and stare down at Ruby.

  
"Um, just checking out your stock? No, wait, I didn't say that! The Damned Dame is cool and terse. Lemme think." Ruby cleared her throat and gruffed up her voice. "'Lookin' for work.'"

  
"Well, darling, you came to the right place. I know everyone in these parts. What kind of work?"

  
"Uhhh... " Ruby turned to Weiss. "How do I say this? There's usually just a wanted poster, or someone tries to kill the gunslinger, or something like that. There isn't a whole conversation about it."

  
"Just pat your gun or something. "

  
She turned back to Nora. "Yeah, I do that."

  
"Uh, Yang?" Grabbing another handful of veggies, Nora sat back down on the couch. "Can I just make up whatever? "

  
"Just say you'll look into it. I had a scenario in mind."

  
Around her veggies, Nora said, "Well, the post is due tomorrow, so that may have something that catches your eye. You need a room for the night, sweetie?"

  
Yang cut in before Ruby could answer. The coffeehouse game had been fun just hanging around, playing baristas and customers, but an actual plot would be fun. "Okay, so the next evening - Dinah, you just flew into town, and are getting a drink while people come collect their mail. Roxy, you're working-"

  
"It isn't work if you enjoy it this much!"

  
" -Hildagard and Schwartz, you've just been sitting and chatting with some of the other patrons, including each other, and Damned-"

  
" _The_ Damned Dame! C'mon sis, use my _whole_ name."

  
"And then there's this creepy person in the corner. "

  
Ruby stuck her tongue out. Blake lobbed her namecard across the veggie tray, into Ruby's lap.

  
"See, _Blake_ gets it!" She held it up for Yang to see, 'The Damned Dame' neatly printed across it.

  
Blake had her head down, working on Weiss' namecard. Or Hildagard's, really.

  
"Anyway." Yang told herself that Blake was paying attention. She could listen and work at the same time. Heck, back at Beacon, she used to doodle, read, _and_ pay attention to the lecture. "Around sundown, there's a ruckus outside. Anyone checking it out? "

  
Ruby scoffed. "Nah, too cool."

  
Blake let out a mock groan. "I was flying all day. The locals can handle it."

  
Nora shrugged. "I'm stuck behind the bar."

  
" _I'll_ check it out." Weiss took a little breath, and turned to look up at Ilia. "Schwartz, did you want to come?"

  
"Oh. Um. Sure." Ilia had her legs pulled up in front of her on the chair and she kept glancing over at Blake. Probably hoping for more direction, or someone to explain the rules, or just someone to sit next to. There was plenty of room on the couch; Yang wasn't sure why Ilia hadn't joined Blake on it.

  
"What do we see?" At least Weiss was staying on track.

  
"A bunch of riders are coming up the street, whistling and hollering, waving their hats, all that."

  
"A bunch? How many is a bunch?"

  
Yang resorted to the usual trick, rolling a die behind the cover of her hand, and looking at her - Blake's - notebook, like she actually had details written there. "A dozen of them. Most of the saloon is crowded up to the windows, looking with you." She reached for a carrot stick.

  
"Great! More customers!" Nora crunched loudly, grinning.

  
"Are they armed?" Ilia hadn't quite managed to meet Yang's eyes, but she was looking in the right direction, at least. Orrrrrrrr. Yup. Right into her cleavage. Ilia noticed Yang noticing, and dropped her eyes and reached for the veggie tray.

  
Settling back in her chair, Yang said, "Pistols on everyone, rifles slung on the horses. Basic melee weapons. Nothing ridiculous, but heavy for just travelers."

  
"Thank you, Blake." Weiss accepted her namecard, and set it up on the coffee table in front of herself. "Do any of them look familiar?"

  
"Nope, all strangers to you. No locals." Yang waved the carrot stick, trying to summon a good picture in her head. "They're coming to a stop outside the saloon, but opposite the saloon is the jail. Uh, Nora, Weiss, Ilia - you're the locals. What's the sheriff like?"

  
"Old. He's a good customer, but not much of a sheriff." Nora turned to look at the other two.

  
Weiss got her judgmental face on. Though, at least she was doing it for fun this time. "He's a sot. He may have been a fighter once, but not anymore. Ilia?"

  
"Um. ...What am I supposed to add?" The last was mostly directed at Blake.

  
"Anything you want. It's kind of like telling a story together. So what he looks like, sounds like, a personality quirk, how your character relates to him. Whatever comes to mind."

  
"He doesn't like me. His, um, cousin is a mine owner a few counties over, and they keep sending people out to claim-jump me."

  
"Great!" Yang took a bite of her carrot, and swirled things around in her head. "So the sheriff comes out, and slurs, 'What in tarnation is all the ruckus about? Honest folks are trying to have dinner!' He's got a bottle of whiskey in one hand."

  
Nora shrugged. "Like I said, he's a good customer."

  
" _Really_ bad sheriff." Ruby said, shaking her head.

  
"So the rider in the lead comes to a stop, and takes his hat off, real sincere like, and says, 'Well, shucks, we were just after some dinner. We're just mighty hungry is all, sheriff.'"

  
"Wow." Blake handed Ilia her namecard. "I don't trust him at all."

  
Yang started to respond, but paused. "Well, I was going to say you can't hear this, since you're still at the bar, but..."

  
Blake pointed at her top ears.

  
"Yup. Anyway, the sheriff seems a mite more trusting than you, Dinah, because he thinks for a second and then says, 'Well, the Sunrise Saloon is right across the way, and Miss Roxy has good grub for good prices.'" Yang sighed, and shook her head. "The talking to myself parts are always weird."

  
"I know, right?!" Ruby was eyeing the veggie tray, but stuck to fiddling with her dice. "That's why I like the fighting parts more."

  
Blake half-raised her hand, trying to catch Yang's eye. "What does the talkative rider look like?"

  
"Um. Bright blue eyes, brown hat. All of them look like they've been on a trail for a while. Anyway, he says, 'Well thank you kindly, sheriff.' And all of them start dismounting and tying their horses up at the hitching post."

  
Weiss turned to Ilia. "Do you think they're from the sheriff's cousin?"

  
"Uh, I didn't think they hated me enough to send a dozen legbreakers after me. They'll starve me out soon, just with their claimjumpers."

  
With a thoughtful look on her face, Weiss asked, "Are they bringing their rifles in?"

  
"Nah, those are staying on the horses. Though they're not all rifles; there are a couple of shotguns."

  
Nora butted in. "I'm getting out from behind the bar and greeting my latest guests. And asking if they're gonna spend the night." The eyebrows were back.

  
"Oh, they're planning on spending _all night_ with you." Yang responded in the same language, waggling her eyebrows.

  
"Great! But, uh, I think Miss Roxy would pick up on Dinah's unease." She looked over at Blake for confirmation.

  
"Yeah, we're friends. This is my post office away from post office." Blake grinned back.

  
...Which was really nice to see, but then Blake's eyes slipped past Nora to Yang's new arm, and her grin faded a little bit - 

  
"So what do I roll to see what kind of evil plan these guys have? ...Yang?"

  
"Sis?"

  
Yang shook herself. "Uh, sorry. Spaced out."

  
Nora motioned at her dice. "Evil scheme, Blue-Eyes, detecting?"

  
"So, it's one die normally. It's your job to read people, so you're pretty good at it. That's another die. Are you using Grit or Grift?"

  
"Uhhh, what does what again?"

  
"Grit's going to give you gut feelings, Grift might give you ideas on the kind of scam they're running. If they running anything." Yang added, just to add a little uncertainty.

  
Grabbing two dice, Nora said, "I think Grift. Dinah already figured out they're bad news." She rolled. "2 and 3. Wasn't there something for rolling your number?"

  
Yang nodded. "Yeah, you get to ask me a question, and I have to answer honestly." Nora's eyes lit up, and Yang hastily amended that to, "A game question. We're not playing Truth or Dare."

  
"You're no fun. Um, are these guys going to get violent?"

  
Everyone else around the tale leaned in a little bit, waiting on Yang's answer.

  
"Yes. They've got a raw edge to them. I mean, the Damned Dame is sort of putting off the same vibe, but she's more of a 'if you annoy me, I will shoot you' feel."

  
Ruby grinned. "Like Weiss!"

  
Weiss just buried her head in her hands.

  
And that practically got a smile from Ilia.

  
Yang pressed on with her explanation. "These guys are more like Grimm, with how much violence they're putting off."

  
"Good thing I've got a shotgun under the bar! Um." Nora looked around at everyone else. "Is everyone else carrying? I know TDD is."

  
" _Nora_." Ruby waved her namecard by way of protest.

  
"Don't you have something shorter? For friends?"

  
Clearing her throat, Ruby graveled, "I don't have any friends."

  
Weiss had recovered enough to mutter - with excellent enunciation - "I wonder why."

  
And that had Blake bringing her hand up to laugh behind it.

  
_She's okay. She's having fun. Relax. Have fun._

  
Lowering her eyes to the notebook Blake had brought her, Yang tried to pay attention as her players listed off what weapons they had.

  
_It's been two weeks. Two weeks of her being back._

  
_But it's still not the same._

  
_I'm trying, but it isn't the same. We're doing all the things we did back at Beacon - training, going out to eat, working on Bumblebee - she's there practically every time I turn around -_

  
Yang's attention snapped back to the game. "Wait, Blasting Dust?"

  
Ilia looked up at her. "For mining?"

  
"And you're having dinner with a couple of sticks in your pocket?"

  
"Umm..." She went bright red. "Is it okay if they're up in my room?"

  
"Sounds good." Nothing else had sounded too outrageous for a frontier town. Even if she had no idea where Ruby's character would keep all those knives. "Uh, Nora, you wanted to roll over your number for Grift, and you didn't. You're not sure what kind of scheme he could be running. There's no bank in town, and even if he ransacks your place, it won't really cover his expenses. It's pricey, feeding that many goons. What's everyone else doing? They're starting to troop into the saloon."

  
"I'm picking up on Miss Roxy's mood, right?" Blake didn't seem sure whether she was asking Yang or Nora.

  
Yang nodded, and Nora made some affirmative noises around her veggies. There really weren't all that many left, despite Yang only having a couple. But it wasn't like Yang really had the same lulls to snack in as everyone else.

  
Blake went on. "Then I'm just going to check my sleeve gun and wing knives, make sure they're ready, and try to pay attention without looking like I'm paying attention. Grift?"

  
"Yup." Yang tried to figure out how she could let Blake have a bonus die. "You were a street kid, right? I take it these are old tricks for you?"

  
"Kind of? The weight restrictions were a real problem for the Peony fliers in terms of defense, so they had to make do with light weapons. At that point, concealment was about the only advantage they had."

  
"Two dice, then."

  
Blake rolled. "Two 6s."

  
"Well, whoever these thugs are, they don't seem aware that you're armed. You're all ready to go."

  
"How about everyone else?" Weiss asked. "Are they picking up on the dangerous mood?"

  
Yang rolled a few dice for effect - she'd nearly forgotten how much fun it was to listen to them clatter around. Mainly for her own amusement, she summoned up snake eyes. "Not _everyone_ is, but the crowd definitely seems to be thinning out. Did you want to say a few quiet words, and try to sway people one way or the other?"

  
Surprisingly, Ilia spoke up. "We can always use more people."

  
"Yes, but it's dangerous. They're not trained combatants."

  
Nora snorted. "I mean, neither are we. Roxy, and everyone, I mean. We're just frontier folks. Miss Darnation over there is probably the only one who might actually be as good as us. Us us, not Roxy us. Ugh. You know what I mean!"

  
Ruby sighed at the mangling of her character's name again, tapping her namecard.

  
Turning to Ilia, Weiss said. "Okay, we'll go with your plan. Hildagard is helping Schwartz stiffen everyone's spine."

  
"Um, what do I do? "

  
Yang tried to keep her explanation simple. "It's pretty easy. If you need to roll, you always get one die. Hildagard is helping you, so that's another die. And you can get another die if you're an expert in whatever you're trying to do, or you have time to prepare, or anything like that."

  
After a few moments of consideration, Ilia said, "...This kind of sounds like walking a picket line."

  
"Okay, so that's another die. Roll away, and let me know what you get. This is a Grit roll, so you're trying to roll under your number."

  
"Which was a 5." Blake reminded her. "Because you're a tough miner."

  
Ilia gathered up her dice and rolled them. She and Blake looked them over.

  
"Okay, you got a 5. So you can ask Yang a question about the situation, and you can change your mind about what you're doing, if you want."

  
"Can I try to get the tough ones to stay, and get the people with kids out? Or at least in the back?"

  
Yang paused, thinking. Ilia might be doing the same thing Blake had, putting a lot of herself in her character. And family kept coming up with Ilia, so it would probably be better to soft pedal that topic. She nodded slowly. "Yeah, you can do some dressing of the ranks, so to speak. So you've got Almea and Bertha and Chang in front with you. They're all fellow prospectors. And Zeb, Yong, and Xander out the back, since they're new or expectant parents."

  
Weiss screwed up her face. "What are they doing _here_ , then?"

  
"Hey, my place isn't iniquity all the time!" Nora drew herself up in a fair impression of an affronted Weiss. "We have a Go night! It's tonight, even!" She added, in a more conversational tone, "That's why the sheriff isn't in. The clinking stones put him off his drink."

  
Ruby stared at Nora. "How _old_ is everyone here? Go's a game for people with like, a million wrinkles, and eyebrow hair you can comb."

  
Nora snorted. "I'll tell Jaune to start growing out his eyebrows. He used to spank Ren _and_ Pyrrha."

  
After a moment where Yang held her breath, no one had winced. It wasn't like they didn't miss her. It wasn't like it didn't still hurt. But maybe everyone was able to cope.

  
Ilia just looked confused, but before she could blunder into anything, Yang found her voice. "What were your other rolls, Ilia?"

  
"1 and 2."

  
"Okay, so that's a solid success. Between Schwartz and Hildagard, you're able to arrange the crowd more to your liking, without being super obvious about it. The Damned Dame, what've you been up to?"

  
"Uh, drinking my root beer and checking out the people coming in, seeing if I recognize any of them from wanted posters or something. So, one die normally - can I have another because I do bounty hunting?"

  
"Yeah, sounds good. You've got to do something to earn lien. 'Wandering Grimm Slayer' doesn't pay all that well."

  
"Everything I've read suggests that it still isn't a well-paying profession, especially when you add in required maintenance costs. The typical Dust expenditure -"

  
Weiss could literally go on like this for hours (and had), and Ruby's eyes were already glazing over, so Yang didn't feel that bad about interrupting. "Roll away, sis."

  
Ruby's dice clattered. "Uh, one success."

  
"Yeah, there are a few stagecoach robbers in the pack. Two-Gun Tam, Hungry Sven, Kneecapper Wu. Blue-Eyes fits the description of Sagacious Reynolds, but last you heard, he got killed trying to rob a train."

  
"Uh, sag- sagata-"

  
Blake cut in. "It means wise, or clever. Or bloody."

  
"Thanks, Blake. So the stagecoach robbers- are they wanted alive, or dead?"

  
"Yes."

  
"Aaaargh, _Yang_. Which _one_? "

  
"They are wanted 'dead or alive.'"

  
" _Thank you_." Ruby looked around the table. "Are we okay with me starting a fight? "

  
"Yes!" Nora was practically bouncing in her seat.

  
"Wait, why are you asking us?" Weiss fidgeted her dice into perfect alignment with the table edge. "We don't know you; you're _also_ an out-of-towner."

  
"Well, I mean, it's a game, right? And we're all on the same side?" Ruby snagged the last carrot stick and started crunching away.

  
Blake spoke up. "I think this kind of game is more like telling a story together." She would think of it that way. "We're playing our characters, but we're also building the story. So it isn't that Ruby asking if our _characters_ want to get into a fight - I don't think any of them apart from the Damned Dame do - but she's asking us as players. Are we done getting introductions, and asking questions, and are we ready for an action scene?"

  
"Yes!" Nora was consistent.

  
"Yeah, what Blake said." Ruby turned back to Weiss. "Fight?"

  
"Yes, that's fine with me. Ilia?"

  
"Oh. Um -" Ilia glanced around the tale. "Are we, like, taking a vote, or..."

  
Ruby shrugged, "Not really."

  
-at the same time as Weiss said, "We can."

  
While they 'discussed' that, Yang grabbed a few pieces of celery and crunched away. And tried not to panic about the fact that this system didn't actually have any sort of combat rules. Yang pondered that for a few minutes, jotting down notes - ideas? theories? frantic hopes? - and keeping half an ear on her players. When they seemed to have reached a consensus, she asked, "Okay, sis, what're you doing?"

  
"I"m gonna saunter up to, uh, Kneecapper Wu-"

  
Nora cut in. " Great name, Yang. "

  
"- and drawl out, 'Heard you robbed the stage.'"

  
"So she's gonna look up at you, and sneer," Yang put one on herself. "'Haven't heard of _you_ at all.'"

  
"Hey, no fair making snappy comebacks, sis!" Ruby thought for a moment, then turned to the group. "Anyone got something?"

  
Ilia, surprisingly, was the first to respond. "Something like, 'I keep a low profile,' or 'Dead men don't talk.'"

  
"Oooh, I _like_ that one!" Ruby turned back to Yang. "'Dead men don't talk. You going to come quietly, or _real_ quietly?'"

  
"Okay, Wu's starting to go for her gun, and you're all ready to draw - but Blue-Eyes is gonna come up and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing tightly. 'Wu, are you making friends?'" Yang shifted her voice to a more panicked tone. "'Boss! She's just here about one of those stages.'"

  
Ruby grinned as she spied the opening. "'One of? You've been worse than I thought, Wu. Maybe that bounty's a mite higher now.'" 

  
Nora cleared her throat. "There a problem here? Surely you can take any disagreements out into the street."

  
"'Naw, no problem, Miss Roxy.'" Yang switched to a leer, directing it at Nora. "'Nothing that can't wait til morning, right?'" She turned her attention back towards Ruby. "'Wu ain't going nowhere tonight, stranger.' Blue-Eyes gives a grin that is probably meant to look reassuring, but looks a lot more like a hungry Beowulf." Yang tried to show that grin off - and wasn't completely sure if she'd gotten it. It wasn't like that would really scare anyone here, and it wasn't like Yang could just go walking around, testing out her scary face on passers-by. It was easier just to go with the flow, and ride the combat rush, and have fun. And some of her Signal friends had told her that her fun-loving smile was deeply unsettling to fight against.

  
Nora broke through Yang's aimless musings. "Well, I am surely gratified to hear that, mister...?"

  
"Reynolds. But-" Yang reached out and grabbed Nora's hand, bringing it up to nearly kiss. "-you can call me Cole."

  
Yang was pretty sure that Nora's snort of laughter wasn't supposed to be in character. Neither was Weiss' sigh, or Ruby's "Gross."

  
Or Blake looking down at her hands in her lap, hunching her shoulders -

  
She let Nora's hand drop. "So, Miss Roxy, what are your plans for your amorous suitor?"

  
"Well, Cole's obviously the leader of these bandits, so if I take him out of the picture, they should break easy, right? " Nora looked around the table, getting nods. "And I've got my derringer and stiletto, and that should be plenty of action for Cole."

  
"What if that's _his_ plan?" Ilia looked worried - probably more than you _should_ be when playing a game. "You should take one of us, too."

  
Nora laughed, still playing Miss Roxy. "Why, Schwartz, I didn't know you cared!"

  
Again, Ilia turned bright red - not just blush-colored, actually bright red. That _had_ to have been inconvenient for a - whatever Ilia had done for the White Fang. Yang would have expected her to have pretty strong self control. But maybe she did, and Ilia was just trying to actually relax? Like how it was a lot easier to read all the details of Blake's moods, now that her top ears were free of her bow. Though how much of that was for comfort, like Blake had said, and how much was for other reasons...

  
Blake reached out to touch Nora's shoulder. "She does have a point. Um, Dinah's overhearing this, and she's going to mosey on a bit closer, saying, 'Miss Roxy, I hate to interrupt, but I believe you owe me a game.'"

  
"Why, so I do! Cole, would you care to join us in the salon? Dinah's an awfully skilled player, and she does so love having an appreciative audience."

  
Ruby interrupted. "Hey, no playing games inside of the game! I know how this whole nesting thing goes with stories! It's an excuse to never stop, and we _do_ have to get plenty of sleep tonight!"

  
Blake, thankfully, provided a good explanation. "We're just trying to get him away from everyone else, Ruby. We're not actually going to do a game within a game."

  
"Good! I'm going to do the 'I'm watching you' hand-eye thing to Wu, then go back to my chair." 

  
"Schwartz, Hildagard? What are you two doing?"

  
"Um." Weiss looked around the table. " Are we really going to attack first? It's not like they're Grimm. "

  
Ilia answered her. "We all know they're going to start something."

  
"Yes, but-" Weiss clearly considered and discarded several tacts. "What if we're wrong? I mean, economically speaking, we want Miss Roxy to get paid. Margins have to be thin out here."

  
"Aww, thanks!" Nora grinned across the table.

  
Ilia wasn't convinced. "If we beat them up, we get their lien. If we kill them, we get all their stuff."

  
"Um." Blake clearly wasn't comfortable with where this was headed, but she looked ready to handle it. "We also get the reputation of being a town where strangers get killed, and that _really_ wouldn't be good long-term."

  
"So they attack us, and kill us instead. That's _also_ not good long-term."

  
"It's not a binary like that. We're ready if they start anything, but they didn't come in guns blazing. They clearly want something other than violence."

  
Ilia scoffed. "Yeah, a good shot at our throats when we're sleeping."

  
"Maybe. But leaping immediately to violent solutions is only going to lead to more violence. I'm not saying we have to let them walk all over us, but we _do_ have other tools."

  
They looked at each other for a long moment, then Ilia nodded, with a small smile. "All right. We'll try it your way first."

  
_I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous, Blake can have other friends, other people can smile at her, she's not the same as she was. Sun said she was giving speeches and being inspiring, and - I would have liked to see it._

  
"Hey Yang-" Ilia was actually managing to address her face this time. "Can I find their roughest, toughest person who isn't Blue-Eyes? I want to strike up a conversation."

  
"Suuuure." Yang cast about the room, trying to find inspiration. "She looks kind of like Nora, but not tiny."

  
"Hey!"

  
"Bright orange hair, can carry a horse, using a cut-down shotgun as a pistol." Her description complete, Yang threw an aside at Nora. "Come on, are you telling me you wouldn't want to be seven feet tall?"

  
"Yeah, okay. I could use _two_ hammers!"

  
With Nora suitably distracted, Yang nodded at Ilia to prompt her.

  
"Schwartz, um, asks what they're doing in these parts."

  
Yang laughed. "Nice and direct!" Ilia dropped her eyes, starting to curl back up in her chair, so Yang quickly added, "It's a good tact for Schwartz. Blunt honesty, and you're aiming it at the person most like yourself. Give me a Grit roll, with three dice."

  
"I got a 1, a 4 and a 6."

  
"So she eyes you up and down, taking your measure, and says, 'Hunting.'"

  
"Hunting what?" Ilia looked around the table. "What is there to hunt out in the back end of Vacuo?"

  
Blake shrugged. "We can ask Sun." Her top ears twitched. "It's not like he's doing anything helpful in the kitchen."

  
"Nah," Yang said, waving a hand. She wasn't sure the game could survive a distraction like Sun. "She's gonna grunt, 'People,' and turn back to her drink."

  
"Like bounty hunting?" Ilia directed that at Ruby.

  
She screwed up her face. "With a dozen hunters? I don't know if the Damned Dame rates a dozen, and I'm _real_ good." Ruby got a far-off look in her eyes. "I wonder how many people Uncle Qrow has fought at once..."

  
"Or they actually mean _hunting_. For meat." Blake leaned back on the couch, thinking. "It _would_ explain why they came to town. Go where prey congregates."

  
"That is **not** what I meant by 'all you can eat!'" Nora said, with a giant grin at Yang.

  
"Wait, the saloon has a buffet?" Ruby threw her hands wide. "Why didn't you _tell_ me that, Nora?"

  
"Focus, sis. Ilia, are you following up on that?"

  
"I, uh, think I'll find Hildagard - we know each other, right?"

  
Weiss nodded. "Yang said we were chatting earlier. I assume we're neighbors."

  
"And I - guess Schwartz just tells Hildagard what she learned. I don't know if that really helped."

  
"It did." Weiss started ticking items off on her fingers. "Either they're here for _someone_ , or they're cannibal bandits. Or, I suppose, she was lying, but you did get two successes, and you were both being tough and Gritty, so I think that's unlikely." She panned her gaze over everyone. "I don't suppose any of you are hiding some kind of deep dark secret that you haven't told any of us?"

  
Seeing how that could go _incredibly_ bad _very_ fast, and already watching Ilia and Blake start to wilt, Yang jumped in. "It's not a murder mystery, Weiss. There's no twist." There was, of course, but it wasn't a _murder mystery_ twist.

  
Weiss still looked skeptical. "Then I suppose we just wait?"

  
Blake nodded. "I guess so. Though Dinah and Miss Roxy are trying to draw Blue-Eyes off to a private parlor for Go."

  
"Oh yeah, I'm going to need a Grift roll on that. Uh, Nora, two dice, plus one for Dinah's help."

  
Picking up her dice, Nora shook them, telling them, "Okay, trying to roll _over_ 3." They clattered across the table, and empty veggie tray, and one fell into Ruby's lap. "That's a 4, 5 and-" Ruby passed the die back, and Nora re-rolled it. "- a 3. Nice!"

  
"Have you got a question?"

  
"Miss Roxy is going to check Cole for weapons."

  
Yang snorted. "I mean, that's not _really_ a question, Nora."

  
"Ugh, fiiiine. Does Cole have any weapons on him other than his pistol?"

  
"He's got a Vacuo Toothpick. Ruby, could you find a picture for Weiss?" That was potentially hazardous, but Yang wanted to keep the action moving, and she didn't want to have to explain it to Weiss. While Ruby pulled out her scroll and started searching her collection of weapon pictures, Yang went on. "Other than that, nothing you can find."

  
Nora double-checked with Blake, then asked, "So are we getting him alone?"

  
"Yup, eventually. He stops at the landing to tell his people to enjoy themselves tonight, because _he_ certainly is." Yang thought about throwing another leer at her players, but given that Blake had just started her breathing trick - "Anyway," _She still seems okay? She'd tell me if she wanted me to stop, or she would have done different things, or use our hand signals, or -_ "- The pipa player is going to start a fast song, everyone's going to start living it up, and you three are going to. ..?" Yang trailed off meaningfully.

  
And checked on Blake again. She'd left off her careful breathing after only a few repetitions. And, catching Yang's eye on her, offered a small smile, her top ears attentive.

  
Yang was grateful when Ruby piped up. "I'm going to try to find a good vantage point, where I can keep an eye on Kneecapper Wu. And Big whatever-her-name-is, since she seems like the dangerous one."

  
"Uh, let's go with Big Bao."

  
Ruby sighed. "And now I want dumplings. _Thanks_ , Yang."

  
"Not my fault you're a bottomless pit. Seriously, you and Nora should enter an eating contest or something." Yang shook herself. "Schwartz, Hildagard?"

  
"I'm just going to watch our people, and make sure no one's drinking too much." Weiss turned to Ilia. "Can you think of anything else?"

  
"I think we're just waiting for them to start something."

  
Which meant it was time for Yang to throw new stuff at her players. She took a deep breath, hoping she was going to be able to get the atmosphere right. "For you three, the tension just keeps winding tighter, as you try to stay alert. The rest of the regulars have relaxed, just thinking that the tensions were from a bunch of new folks coming in. But Blue-Eyes' crew are getting drinks, and playing Go, and laughing raucously, and having fun with Miss Roxy's folk." Yang paused, letting the situation linger for a second, then went on. "When it happens, you almost miss it. It's well after nightfall. Kneecapper Wu has a guy in her lap, and they're canoodling, with Wu kissing his neck. And the guy goes rigid, and starts trying to get away, and there's blood on his neck-"

  
"I shoot Wu!" Ruby was just so _thrilled_ to finally get to the fight, picking up her dice. "How many?"

  
"Three." 

  
Ruby's metal dice clattered on the table. "Two successes!"

  
"The Damned Dame puts two bullets in Wu's shoulder, throwing her to the ground and sending the guy she's holding sprawling. And all heck breaks loose, with Blue-Eyes' crew throwing their heads back, showing off the fangs and claws they didn't just have, and lunging at whoever is nearby. Ilia, Weiss, two dice each, so we can figure out how the brawl out here is going."

  
Weiss spoke up first, "I got two successes."

  
Ilia conferred with Blake for a moment, then said, "Me too."

  
"Considering the circumstances, things are going pretty well. There's a lot of screaming, and yelling, but Schwartz and Hildagard are holding fast at the bar, and you two are providing a rally point for everyone else. So everyone who isn't engaged is falling back to your position. Wu's back on her feet-"

  
"I guess I only winged her."

  
"You were having to shoot around her victim, sis. Anyway, Wu and the others are trying to drag people down, and maul them bad enough that they can't get away. There are bunch on the ground now, not able to do much besides scream for help. Big Bao's got her eyes locked on the Damned Dame."

  
Ilia turned to Nora. "There was a shotgun under the bar, right?"

  
"Yup!"

  
"Schwartz is getting that, and trying to get an angle on Big Bao."

  
Ruby grinned. "Oh, you fight _dirty_. I like it! I'm going to try to draw attention to myself, using the bannister as cover if I need to."

  
"And _I'm_ going to take advantage of that by trying to break through to the wounded." Weiss picked up her dice. "If we can get them behind the bar, they'll be easier to defend."

  
Yang nodded, trying to get the battle fixed in her mind. "Okay, Ruby: three dice for Grift-"

  
"Grift? But-"

  
"You're trying to be tricky. That's Grift."

  
Sighing, Ruby rolled.

  
While she did that, Yang said, "Ilia, three dice for Grit, Weiss, two dice for Grit." As dice bounced, Yang turned to her other players. "Hearing the shots, Cole says, 'Guess we're starting now', and leaps over the Go board at Dinah. Nora, Blake, two dice for Grit each." Cross-cutting the scenes was going to be more exciting for everyone, but it was a lot to keep track of. "Just hold up however many successes you got."

  
Ruby made a zero with her fingers, scowling down at her dice. Weiss held up two fingers, and turned to help Ilia, who also held up two. Both Blake and Nora held up one.

  
Yang took a second to consider, then said, "Okay, The Damned Dame is drawing a lot of fire. Practically every black hat with a gun is shooting up at you."

  
"Yes!... Wait, I didn't get any successes."

  
"I wasn't done. No one else can really tell, but you're taking a _lot_ of hits. Your Aura cracks and is just barely hanging on."

  
Making little circles on the coffee table, Ruby said, "I guess it's too late to say The Damned Dame has your Semblance, right?"

  
Yang snorted. "Yeah, little late. Next shot you take is going to go through. And Big Bao is headed up the stairs, with her sawed-off in hand. She gets to the landing - and Schwartz fires, sending her crashing to the ground."

  
"Teamwork!" Ruby reached across the table to high-five Ilia. It took her a second, but she caught on, slapping her hand against Ruby's, and settling back down in her seat with a small smile.

  
"Hildagard, you're able to recover a couple of the closest injured and hide them behind the bar, since everyone is focusing on the Damned Dame. But they've realized what you're doing, and they're all grouping up to swarm over you. Dinah - Blue-Eyes is crashing into you, and you're at your limit trying to keep his teeth from your throat, using your arms and your wings."

  
Blake asked, "Is he a Faunus? I don't know of anyone with retractable fangs."

  
"You're definitely able to get a good look at him, and -" Yang paused to order the words in her head. "- it's like, behind his blue eyes, he's got bloody red eyes. Grimm eyes."

  
Blake didn't _quite_ bury her head in her hands, but she definitely sunk down in her seat, hands framing her face. "He's WereGrimm."

  
"Yup!"

  
"Anyway, because he's trying to get at your throat, Miss Roxy's got a good shot at his back, and she unloads her derringer into it."

  
Nora punched the air. "Yes!"

  
"So, Miss Roxy, you've got a good view - and the Damned Dame, you can see the same thing happening with Big Bao - you can see the gunshot wounds start to close, with the bullets and buckshot working their ways back out, their flesh writhing and letting off black smoke."

  
Nora drooped, her hands on the floor and her face on her knees. "Nooooooo..."

  
"We can deal with this, everyone!" Ruby had her determined face on. "Uh, Schwartz, you need to get to your room. Toss me the shotgun."

  
Ilia nodded. "I'm going to head up the stairs - firing down into Big Bao as I do - give the shotgun to the Damned Dame, and go get my Blasting Dust."

  
"And I'm going to try to break up the WereGrimm charge at the bar with the shotgun."

  
"Um, Yang?" Weiss had her eyes down on the table. "Can I use some of the alcohol as fire bombs, or something?"

  
Still facedown, Nora groaned. " _Please_ don't burn my place down. It's Go night."

  
"Yeah, sure, Miss Roxy has some high-proof stuff."

  
Ruby put her hand to her ear. "Huh?! What's that?! You'll have to speak up, Miss Roxy, I don't hear so good in my advanced age!"

  
"We're jumping right to fire and explosives?" Blake's tone wasn't disapproving, exactly. "Aren't WereGrimm vulnerable to, um, silver, and the heartwood of oak and ash, and stuff like that?"

  
Weiss said, "I don't think we really have access to any of those. Neither of those trees are native to Vacuo, and silver - Schwartz, _is_ there any silver locally?"

  
"Um. If there was, it's being mined by someone who isn't me."

  
"And I know _Hildagard_ doesn't have actual silverware." Weiss paused. "Miss Roxy might have a set, though."

  
"Yes!" Nora looked up, clinging to the lifeline Weiss had offered. "I have a set of _silver_ ware in my private parlor! Which I'm in now! I grab one of the knives and stab Cole with it!"

  
"I'm going to try to set her up for it." Blake's face was set in a determined cast. "Even if I have to let him bite me."

  
Yang nodded. "Okay, Miss Roxy, four dice for Grit."

  
Nora rolled, and glared down at her dice. "Seriously?!" She sighed. "I got a 3 and three failures. _Every time_ I get lucked."

  
"Okay, so Miss Roxy lines up her strike, and the silver knife tears through the back of Cole's shirt and leaves a smoking black cut down his back, as it deflects off his ribcage." Yang saw the look on Blake and Ilia's faces, and added, "I'm kind of guessing Miss Roxy hasn't actually stabbed all that many people in the back, literally."

  
"Guess not." Nora went back to her defeated posture. "I guess this is the part where I get eaten."

  
"Actually, Cole's got his jaws locked around Dinah's shoulder."

  
"Oh, that gives me an idea." Blake leaned forward, smiling. "I fly us out the window."

  
"Um. Didn't you say something about weight limits for the Peony fliers?"

  
"Yeah, but those are over long-distances. If I can get high up and drop Cole, that's great. But just getting him outside is still good. It'll give Miss Roxy time to arm everyone else." Blake picked up her dice. "Grit? Two, because I'm an expert flier?"

  
"Sure, roll away."

  
She rolled, and sighed. "Of course. Two failures."

  
"Hey, are all you kids packed?" 

  
Yang leaned back in her chair to look up at her uncle. "Are _you_ packed?"

  
"I'm always packed, firecracker. Where's Oz?"

  
"Kitchen, helping with dinner."

  
Ruby cut in, "Hey, Uncle Qrow, how many people have you beat up at once?"

  
"With Auras, or without? Because I once went five to one with some rogue Huntsmen, but one of them shot his friends twice, so I'm not sure if that really counts." He scratched his jawline. "Without - that depends how you count, I think."

  
Her sister looked back at her. "Do WereGrimm have Auras?"

  
Yang shrugged. It wasn't really important. What was important was that with Qrow here, the dice weren't going to behave. 

  
"Alright, so who wants lemonade?" Jaune came back in from the kitchen, with a full pitcher and a tray of glasses.

  
_At least all the interruptions are happening at once._ Yang tried to hold onto her picture of the action as Jaune filled glasses for everyone and passed them out, and Qrow headed off towards the kitchen. Jaune followed him, taking the empty veggie tray with him. But Blake had already said she'd failed, and Yang didn't think she would be able to get away with letting her re-roll, or pretend she'd forgotten what Blake had said.

  
After a long draw on her glass of lemonade, Yang said, "Schwartz, you'd heading to your room when you hear the sounds of a struggle coming from Miss Roxy's private parlor."

  
Ilia drew herself up. "I'm charging through the door and helping!"

  
"Okay, everyone in the parlor roll Grit at two dice. Hildagard, The Damned Dame, same deal."

  
Nora groaned, and held up a 'zero'. Blake did the same, with a frown. ....Maybe it wasn't all Qrow.

  
But then Ilia held up two fingers. And Weiss and Ruby held up one.

  
"Schwartz, you're bursting in, and seeing Blue-Eyes trying to eat the other two. So you grab a chair, and slam it into him, knocking him off Dinah."

  
"Good! I'm grabbing Dinah and pulling her out of the room, and I'm going to bar the door with the chair."

  
"Just leaving me in there, huh?" Nora asked, slurping at her lemonade.

  
And Ilia turned bright red again. "No! Um, sorry, I figured you were on your feet, and could get out too. _We're_ going to bar the door."

  
Yang nodded. "The Damned Dame breaks up the initial charge at the bar, but then she runs out of shells, and a few of the WereGrimm start firing at her, and with your Aura so low, you're pretty well suppressed." Ruby lowered herself to the floor, so only her eyes were looking over the table's edge. "Exactly. Hildagard, unless you think of something, the next charge is going to make it over the bar, and into the injured folks."

  
"Oh! I have everyone pull behind the bar, so we can use it as a fortification."

  
"That'll help, but you're not sure if it's going to be enough. Also, you're stepping on the injured."

  
Weiss pondered for a moment, then brightened. "I can light the bar on fire! Just spill a bunch of the alcohol over it, and ignite the fumes. That should keep them back, and it probably won't spread. And the bar itself probably won't burn, since they make them out of very dense wood, and alcohol fires aren't that hot."

  
"That's using your noggin. But it does mean that they'll probably go harder after the Damned Dame."

  
Blake held up her hand. "Miss Roxy and I can come back to the action. We can probably hold them long enough for Schwartz to get her Blasting Dust."

  
"I don't think we're going to do much with derringers, Blake. They aren't exactly long-range weapons." Nora mimed holding a tiny pistol, with her pinkie out.

  
Ilia cleared her throat. "Uh, I'll loan you mine. And get my pickaxe."

  
"Hey Nora?" Weiss clearly had an idea, Yang could tell that much. "Does your saloon have a mirror behind the bar?"

  
"Oh, yeah, a nice long one! So we can show off our sexy back muscles!" She flexed her arms for effect, even though the couch was the only one who could see her back. 'See,' with its hopefully non-existent eyes.

  
"Excellent."

  
Nora paused. "And suddenly, I'm worried. You know, that mirror was _very_ expensive-"

  
Yang leaned forward. "So what's the plan, Hildagard?"

  
"Well, most mirrors are made by taking a sheet of glass and silvering it. It's not _much_ silver, but it's all we've got. So once the bar is on fire-"

  
"I hate this plan." Nora took a slurp of her lemonade, and migrated from the couch to the floor.

  
"-I'm going to take the mirror off the wall, and shatter it over the first WereGrimm to come within reach. Then we can all grab shards of the mirror, and use them to finish off anyone we shoot down or blow up."

  
Looking around at her players, Yang asked, "Anyone have any additions?"

  
"I probably have a hand mirror with my gear..." Ilia started.

  
"We really need the bomb, though." Blake pointed out. "We have plenty of mirror."

  
"Oh. Yeah, right. That's a good point." Ilia pulled her legs back up onto the chair, hugging them.

  
Ruby perked back up above the edge of the table. "Is Big Bao starting to get up yet? Because if she is, I'm going to grab her sawed-off, and make sure she stays down."

  
Sighing, Nora said, "Miss Roxy is resigning herself to all the property damage. But she gets all of their horses!"

  
"Okay - Blake, Nora - one of you roll Grit with three dice, whoever has Schwartz' pistol; the other one is going to be helping with her derringer, and whatever random stuff is up here to throw."

  
"I'm throwing!" Nora said quickly. "I can avoid the valuable stuff."

  
Blake rolled, and threw up her hands. "I can't do anything! I guess I'm just firing into the banister, or something!"

  
Yang wasn't exactly sure what she could even say about that, so she just turned to her sister. "Ruby, Bao's twitching. You put two shells in her head, and she stops healing, partially melting away in a billow of foul vapors."

  
"Oh good, we don't _have_ to use silver."

  
"Schwartz, you burst into your room, dig out your Blasting Dust, grab your pickaxe, and book it back towards everyone else."

  
Ilia nodded, not looking at her. She was turned towards Blake, but at least it looked like she didn't know what to say either.

  
"Hildagard, the bar is on fire, and you've got the mirror down from the wall. It's pretty unwieldy."

  
Frowning, Weiss started to ask, "Can anyone-"

  
"I'll help." Blake scowled down at her dice. "It's not like I'll even notice seven years of bad luck. I can just fly to you."

  
"Hey, leave the pistol?" Nora took a slug of her lemonade. "I don't want to have to throw the Mistral vases."

  
"Sure." Glancing at Yang, Blake asked, "What do I have to roll?"

  
"I mean, you're just crossing the room. You're drawing a few shots, and Hungry Sven is leaping at your feet, but you're a good enough flier that you make it to the bar without incident. Between the two of you, the mirror is a lot easier to handle. Hildagard, three dice for Grit, as Wu comes bounding around the side of the bar."

  
"One success, and I rolled my number." Weiss looked across the table at Blake. "Any ideas?"

  
"We need to get them grouped together, so Schwartz can blow them up. Can we turn the mirror sideways, or something, and use it to press them back?" Blake thought. "I think the real question is, are they afraid of it? The mirror, I mean."

  
"Well, Wu sees her own reflection, with the two of you driving the mirror at her, and leaps backwards, screeching. And that catches the attention of all the other WereGrimm. So that's a big yes."

  
Nora made a skeptical face. "But it's been there all night."

  
Yang tried to cover herself - if only because it may have been there in _Nora's_ mental landscape the whole time, but Yang hadn't even considered it until Weiss had brought it up. "Yeah, but there's a difference between seeing a shotgun hanging over the mantle, and having it pointed right at you."

  
"So while they're all scared of the mirror, I'm going to pop up and start firing with my pistol and Bao's sawed-off," Ruby mimed two-fisted shooting, "Trying to drive them closer together."

  
Before Nora could add to that, Yang played another tangle. "Miss Roxy, the door to your parlor is bursting open, and Cole is charging out."

  
"Ugh, this guy! I'm going to throw the stupid vase at him - I always hated the pattern - and fire Schwartz's pistol at him, trying to get him to dive down to the ground floor."

  
"Where I can blow them all up!" Ilia's grin faded a bit. "I don't think this'll do good things to our hearing."

  
Ruby shrugged. "It probably won't do good things for our meaty bits!"

  
"So-" Blake fixed Weiss with a determined look. "Charge?"

  
She nodded. "Charge."

  
"Ooooo-kay!" Yang took a deep breath. "We're going to do these one at a time. Miss Roxy - Grift, two dice, plus one for sacrificing the vase."

  
"Ha! Two successes!"

  
"The Mistral Vase shatters across his knees, and Cole swears violently, and half-stumbles, half-leaps over the railing to the floor below. The Damned Dame, are you willing to get hit?"

  
Ruby nodded. "Oh yeah, I'm just walking down the stairs, firing as I go."

  
"Two for expertise, one for the extra gun, one for sheer grit. Rolling for Grit, obviously."

  
"Duh!" She rolled. "Yes, four successes!"

  
"Okay, you take a hit in your arm, and you drop the sawed-off, but you keep advancing and bleeding and firing, getting them all nice and corralled, including Cole. Hildagard and Dinah - "

  
Blake held up her hands. "I don't want to roll at all. I'm just going to be helping Hildagard."

  
Given how Blake had been rolling, that made sense. "Hildagard, then. Grit, three dice."

  
Weiss held up two fingers.

  
"Got it. Schwartz? Give me two dice for Grit - getting the fuse lit, and having the guts to hold onto it long enough that the WereGrimm won't have any chance to react to it."

  
Ilia took a deep breath, and rolled, covering her face. "I don't want to look."

  
Blake leaned over to check the dice. "Want me to-"

  
"Yes please."

  
"Two successes."

  
Letting out her held breath, Ilia slumped into her chair. Everyone looked at Yang.

  
"So, Hildagard and Dinah are pressing forward with the mirror, and the WereGrimm are falling back, hemmed in by the Damned Dame's shooting. Cole falls in with them, and he's shouting, 'Get them!' and pushing people forward, but they're just recoiling from the mirror, crawling backwards on their hands - "

  
Yang took a breath.

  
"Schwartz leans over the railing above the WereGrimm, and drops her Blasting Dust, the fuse burning through its last milliseconds of life - and Dinah and Hildagard throw the mirror between the WereGrimm and the Dust." 

  
Ruby winced. "Ouch. Fragged."

  
"You got it, sis. After that, it's just picking up the pieces. Literally." Yang paused. "Um, why don't we just go around the table, and you tell _me_ what happened, for a change. Nora?"

  
"Well, Miss Roxy claims all of their horses and gear, and it almost covers all of the damages. The Go sets are a total loss, though, and no one in town really wants to play it again. She starts keeping two shotguns under the bar now, one loaded with silver buckshot. Blake?"

  
"Um, give me a moment."

  
_I wonder if she's going to write more about Dinah. Or want to try Tenebrous Remnant, but fixed. Or -_

  
"Dinah just saw things she didn't think was possible. She's going to stay in town until she's recovered, and then start asking around on her route. Trying to find out more about WereGrimm, and whatever else is out there. Hopefully, she'll find allies before she finds more enemies. Ilia?"

  
"...I don't know? I guess, um, Schwartz is going to go back to prospecting. I'd say she's going to keep a sharp look-out for silver, but, um, I think she's been doing that anyway."

  
Blake asked, "Does she ever strike a good lode? Invite her family out here?"

  
"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. It's not a big mine, but it's fair and safe. And Schwartz invites a bunch of silversmiths to town, so there's always a lot around."

  
Weiss picked up the thread. "I don't know if Hildagard really goes far from her farm. But she spends her spare lien trying to get a collection of books on strange things like WereGrimm, with the understanding that Dinah can always fly by and do some research." She smiled at Blake, who returned it. "Ruby?"

  
"The Damned Dame is not deterred! She's going to stay long enough to heal, and then hit the road. And she never does make it back to that little town. But sometimes, her shoulder aches, and she loads her guns with silver bullets and goes hunting."

  
Yang grinned. "Nice!" She sat back in her chair, and took a long drink. "Everyone have fun?"

  
"Yeah!" Ruby leaned back on her hands. "But it would have been better in _X-Hairs_."

  
"We'd still be calculating bullet trajectories, sis."

  
"And?"

  
Nora hopped back on the couch. "I just wish I could actually roll dice."

  
Shaking her head, Blake said, "Tell me about it. I miss Orlando, where I could help just by being there."

  
"Stupid bardic sex god." Ruby shook her head. "My F&F books are back on Patch anyway, Blake."

  
"Oh. That's alright, Ruby. We're a lot busier than we were."

  
"Besides, I like to play too! And Yang's really good at being a Fortress Master."

  
Yang snorted. "Yeah, I taught you all you know."

  
"You did _not_!"

  
Ren called out from the kitchen, "Dinner's ready."

  
Nora bolted up. "The quick and the hungry!" She dashed off, followed shortly by Ruby. 

  
Weiss sighed, and stood up. "Those two... did anyone have ideas for games after dinner?"

  
"As long as I don't have to run it, I'm down for anything." Yang stood up. "...Unless it's Compost King. Nora's told me stories. Boring, _boring_ stories."

  
Ilia rose, her eyes locked on the ground. "I, um, brought a Tornado mat." And went bright red again.

  
"That sounds fun." Blake sprang smoothly to her feet, and smiled at Yang.

  
_... **Breathe** , Xiao Long. _

  
_She's back. She came back._

  
_And she says she isn't leaving._

  
_I want to believe her. I'm trying to believe her._

  
"Nora, leave some for everyone else!"

  
"The _quick_ and the **hungry** , Jaune!"

  
"Guys! Hurry!"

  
Ilia and Weiss started moving. But Blake was still standing there, waiting on Yang.

  
She swallowed. "Yeah, Tornado sounds like it could be fun. Um, food?"

  
Blake nodded. "I'm with you."


End file.
